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Nursing to Continue at Hope

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Nursing education will continue at Hope College even after the long-running joint
program with Calvin College ends.

Offered jointly since 1982, Hope's nursing program will begin operating independently
in 2003. The result, according to Hope College President James E. Bultman, will be
nursing education that benefits more fully from the college's strengths overall.

"Establishing our own program gives us the freedom to put Hope's signature on nursing
education," Bultman said. "Hope combines excellent liberal arts education, strong training
in the sciences and an ecumenical Christian focus that helps prepare students for
service to others. At the same time, our program is being developed with a community-based
approach to student placements and other activities that emphasizes serving the surrounding
area in tandem with our students' education."

The transition from the joint program to the independent one is designed to be as
seamless as possible, according to Debra Sietsema, who is the coordinator of Hope's
program and an assistant professor of nursing. The last Hope-Calvin class will graduate
in 2003, and the first Hope-only class will graduate in 2004.

The B.S.N. program will continue with the same number of faculty on-campus: seven-and-a-half
full-time positions. The goal will be to enroll about 32 students each year.

In addition to having a Hope focus, the program will also differ in allowing students
to start taking nursing courses earlier in their careers--as sophomores instead of
as juniors. According to Sietsema, the change will not only give the students an earlier
start in learning their chosen profession, but will also better blend their work in
nursing into their ongoing Hope experience. The college's program, according to Sietsema,
will help meet a national need. "There is a decrease in supply and an increase in
demand for nurses," she said.

She noted that an estimate published by the "Journal of the American Medical Association"
indicates that if trends continue, within 10 years there will be a 20 percent shortfall
in the registered nurse supply.

"Hope College can continue to meet the educational needs of baccalaureate nurses to
further meet the needs of Holland, western Michigan and society at large," Sietsema said.

Hope and Calvin began the nursing program together as an economical way for each school
to offer nursing, since neither deemed it feasible to start a program alone, according
to Dr. James Gentile, who is dean for the natural sciences and the Kenneth G. Herrick
Professor of Biology at Hope.

The alliance has worked, he noted, but not always easily. For example, the 35-mile
distance between the two schools creates challenges for course scheduling and faculty-student
interaction. Distance learning technology has eased the burden, he said, but hasn't
eliminated it. Hope and Calvin also follow different academic schedules, with their
breaks and semester ends and beginnings falling at different times.

In addition, he said, as the program has matured each school has seen ways to build
on its own strengths yet has been limited by the joint nature of the operation. When Calvin
decided last year to dissolve the program and try a different tact, Hope, he said,
embraced the opportunity to do the same.

"I think it's important for a college like Hope College to have a program that is
a service-based in the context of the Christian mission of the college," Gentile said.
"And I can think of no program more suited to service to humanity than the health
careers."

He is particularly enthused that Hope can now add to nursing the same research-based
approach to learning that has long been the hallmark of the college's other science programs.

"Hope College has one of the strongest programs in science education in the nation
among liberal arts colleges," he said. "Bringing the program more fully into the academic
life of the college gives us a unique opportunity to deliver a nursing program that
will be able to tap the strengths that our sciences have to offer."

Toward that end, the nursing program--now headquartered in a house on 14th Street--will
move into to the new science building the college has planned. According to Gentile,
the new quarters, in addition to being state-of-the-art technologically, will provide
better opportunities for interaction with other departments, in keeping with the new
building's cross-disciplinary focus.

"It'll be one of the premier nursing teaching facilities in western Michigan," he
said.

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Global Women's Day Event

Last year women in sixty-four countries went on strike to celebrate themselves and the work they do, while also demanding drastic change in their communities and worldwide. On Thursday Hope College will join in this day of action.